Poppy Plant Bust In Catawba County

In Catawba County, law enforcement officers are seizing an acre of poppies, the plant used in making drugs like heroin.

The field has an estimated value of $500 million. It's the second poppy plant bust in the U.S. this year. The other was in California.

According to the Hickory Daily Record, narcotics investigators from the Catawba County Sheriff's Office went to a house on the property looking for something else. When they knocked on the door, the man answering said, "I guess you're here about the opium.”

The liquid released from poppy plants is used to make opium, and growing them is illegal.

The poppy field is in Claremont, a small town about 40 miles north of Charlotte. The plants are still being pulled up and weighed.